Violence
The violence of Reservoir Dogs shocked audiences when it opened in 1992, as the level of violence it portrayed had not been seen in independent film up until this point. The violence, though has a purpose. It serves character as well as story. Mr. Blonde embodies violence and through him we are able to see the darkness that lies within an individual who's lived a life of crime. He represents an unpredictable type of violence. We also see what Mr. White, Pink and other members of the crew would deem 'necessary violence.' An example being when Mr. White kills the two cops chasing him, Orange and Brown, and when Mr. Pink asks if White killed any cops he confirms it and they are glad about it because cops are real people. But, they react differently when they speak of a young black woman who was killed as they view it as heinous. Finally, we see the Mr. Orange go from an excitement to be going undercover to the reality of seeing Mr. White kill men he works with, and then he himself killing an innocent woman while stealing her car. Once he experiences the violence first hand he feels the weight of it, and the price is heavy.
Identity
In Reservoir Dogs, the characters don't know who's who as they all are given code names. So, when the diamond heist goes south when the cops arrive far earlier than they should it means there is a traitor in the crew. But, no one knows who it could, and one way of proving someone's identity as a criminal or a rat was to add up their acts of violence. If you killed a cop you were clean, if you took a bullet you were clean, if you went crazy more than likely you were clean. All of this leads to characters only being able to rely on what they believe about someone. Thus Mr. White believes Mr. Orange to be clean while Joe doesn't. The whole issue of who is who leads to no one escaping the violence with their life.
Loyalty and Trust
When Mr. Orange says that Mr. Blonde was going to kill everyone and steal the diamonds he didn't count on the fact that he and Eddie were so close. Mr. Blonde had done four years in prison because he didn't rat on Eddie nor his dad. He was loyal and that made Eddie trust him. So, by saying Blonde was going to do this he breaks his trust with Eddie. And, when Joe pust his gun on Mr. Orange, Mr. White steps in to defend him. White trusts Orange. He's spent time with the kid, taught him what he knows and helped him get ready and he's seen him be loyal to this point thus, he is loyal to Mr. White. Thus when Mr. Orange reveals that he is a cop it creates a betrayal that harkens back to Greek Tragedy, and because his trust was broken Mr. White take Mr. Orange's life.
